But was the person before her eyes a normal person? Ren Yaohua felt she had encountered a madman. At this moment, she was infinitely grateful to Ren Yaoqi. If she had truly married such a person, she suspected that with her temperament, she would one day perish together with him.

Seeing that Ren Yaohua remained silent, Zeng Kui waved his hand in front of her eyes: “How about it? Do you dare to bet?”

Ren Yaohua let out a cold laugh and said through gritted teeth: “I’ll bet! I hope you keep your word!”

Zeng Kui smiled and said, “Naturally.”

He even kindly used his dagger to cut the rope binding Ren Yaohua’s hands, saying: “I quite like this face of yours, so you’d better protect it well in a moment.”

Ren Yaohua moved her stiff hands. Her wrists had been bound the entire journey, and due to poor blood circulation, they had lost most sensation by now. Fortunately, her arms and elbows could still exert force.

Looking at the slope about thirty to forty steps away, Ren Yaohua gritted her teeth and began crawling toward it with difficulty.

After crawling about ten steps while gritting her teeth through the pain, Ren Yaohua was already somewhat exhausted. Moreover, the wound on her leg kept bleeding, and the friction with the ground along the way had worsened her left leg injury, causing pain so severe she almost lost sensation. A long trail of blood meandered across the ground.

Zeng Kui leaned against the carriage wall with great interest, watching the spectacle and occasionally clapping to encourage Ren Yaohua. The several attendants from the Zeng family, selected by Zeng Pu to protect Zeng Kui, couldn’t bear to watch. Normal people wouldn’t find any entertainment in seeing a beautiful young lady tortured like this – only Zeng Kui watched with rapt attention.

Ren Yaohua lay on the ground for a while to rest, spitting out sand from her mouth. Just as she was about to continue crawling forward, a sudden change occurred.

Five masked heads suddenly appeared from below the slope. These five people jumped up from below the slope at an incredible speed that seemed impossible to comprehend. It was unclear whether they had been hiding on the slope beforehand or had climbed up from below.

Ren Yaohua was startled, but she had already encountered enough upheavals today. Not knowing whether this group of people who suddenly appeared were enemies or allies, she cautiously rolled to one side and kept her eyes fixed on both Zeng Kui and the two groups of people who had suddenly emerged.

After seeing the people who suddenly appeared, Zeng Kui frowned: “Who are you? Were you sent by Wu Yiyu?”

Zeng Kui’s attendants reacted quickly, immediately surrounding Zeng Kui.

The last of the five people to come up looked at Ren Yaohua, then glanced at Zeng Kui and his group as well as the two large sacks on their horses. Ignoring Zeng Kui’s question, he spoke rapidly in a hoarse voice: “I’ll take this girl and go report back first. You go rescue the eldest brother and the second brother.”

Upon hearing this, Ren Yaohua’s heart, which had held some hope, instantly sank. These people were in league with those two. Were they all Wu Yiyu’s people?

Zeng Kui also heard this and narrowed his eyes slightly, smiling: “Miss Wu is quite capable, able to hire so many people.”

One of the masked men laughed strangely: “Young Master Zeng, you’d better worry about yourself. The employer has spoken – she doesn’t just want this girl. She wants you too…” The man’s voice paused as he looked maliciously at Zeng Kui’s crotch area. “And a certain part of Young Master Zeng’s body.”

The masked men all burst into laughter.

Wu Yiyu had indeed said such things before. She had previously declared that if the Zeng family dared to marry her, she would make the Zeng family extinct.

Hearing this, Zeng Kui’s face darkened. All traces of his previous smile disappeared, and his sinister expression, combined with his ghostly face, made people’s hearts turn cold. If those who found Young Master Zeng’s smile ugly could see him now, they would wish he would smile more often.

Seeing their master insulted, Zeng Kui’s attendants became angry. One drew his sword and said, “Just some petty thieves who don’t even dare show their faces. It seems your employer misjudged you.”

The masked man replied: “As they say, when immortals fight, mortals suffer. We’re just some wandering martial artists trying to make a living, taking money to do jobs. We all have old and young at home, and we’re truly afraid of offending immortals and suffering retaliation in the end!”

The masked man who had spoken first ignored their back-and-forth banter and walked directly to Ren Yaohua’s side, crouching down. His gaze swept over her right leg, and his brow furrowed slightly. Then, he bent down to pick up Ren Yaohua.

Ren Yaohua swung her hand and slapped the masked man. Although separated by the face cloth, the slap still had some force. The masked man said nothing and still lifted Ren Yaohua by her waist.

Ren Yaohua was both anxious and angry, kicking and hitting the man. The masked man grunted when kicked in the abdomen, but didn’t loosen his grip at all.

Zeng Kui ordered his men to intercept the person trying to take Ren Yaohua away, but the other masked men simultaneously attacked. While fighting, the masked men also tried to snatch the two sacks containing people. Four masked men remained, while Zeng Kui’s side had six people. However, once they engaged, Zeng Kui’s men discovered that these four had considerable martial arts skills. They were all held up and couldn’t stop the other masked man from taking Ren Yaohua away.

Zeng Kui watched helplessly as Ren Yaohua was being carried away. He let out a cold laugh and, hiding behind the protective circle of his attendants, took a bow and arrows from his horse’s saddle. Taking an arrow, he drew the string and aimed. Although he had no martial arts skills, he was from a military family after all, and his archery was quite presentable. He shot three arrows in succession at the back of the masked man carrying Ren Yaohua.

The masked man also had considerable martial arts skills. He easily dodged the first two arrows without even looking back. When the third arrow came, Ren Yaohua happened to bite hard on the masked man’s wrist. The masked man seemed unprepared for Ren Yaohua to use her teeth and was momentarily stunned. In that moment of distraction, Zeng Kui’s arrow came flying. The masked man reacted and dodged to the side while holding Ren Yaohua, but still got hit by the arrow in his right rear arm.

Ren Yaohua was only thinking about not being taken to Wu Yiyu, so she had become somewhat hysterical and would use any means necessary. She clawed and bit without mercy. Seeing the masked man get injured, Ren Yaohua felt pleased and was about to kick him again to break free, when she heard the masked man say in a low voice: “Are you perhaps born in the year of the dog?”

This remark left Ren Yaohua, who had been somewhat mad with desperation, suddenly stunned like a wooden chicken, because she recognized that this voice was completely different from the hoarse voice she had heard before. This voice was low and magnetic, clearly belonging to a young man.

Most importantly, Ren Yaohua found this voice very familiar.

The masked man breathed a sigh of relief when Ren Yaohua stopped struggling. He lifted Ren Yaohua onto Zeng Kui’s horse, crouched low to dodge another arrow Zeng Kui shot from behind, then nimbly mounted the horse. With one hand supporting Ren Yaohua and positioning her so as not to press on her wound, he gripped the reins with the other hand.

“Endure a little longer. The carriage is stopped at a farmstead not far ahead, and there’s wound medicine in the carriage,” he said, looking down only after the horse had run some distance from Zeng Kui and his men.

After thinking for a moment, he added, “Although we can’t find a physician nearby for now, I’m quite skilled at bandaging wounds. I guarantee your leg won’t be lame – don’t be afraid.”

Listening to these not particularly skillful words of comfort, Ren Yaohua couldn’t help but shed tears. When she learned she had been kidnapped, when she rode in the same carriage as dead bodies, when she was forced to roll down a slope with her life hanging in the balance, Ren Yaohua had never cried. But now she couldn’t help but sob loudly while lying in the masked man’s embrace.

The masked man looked down at the woman crying more pitifully than a child, completely disregarding her image. He opened his mouth, not knowing what to say, and could only gently pat her back. However, with only two hands, having to control the horse and steady Ren Yaohua, it was quite inconvenient.

Fortunately, by the time they reached the farmstead he had mentioned, Ren Yaohua had finally stopped crying.

The masked man carefully lifted Ren Yaohua down from the horse and carried her directly into a farmhouse built of yellow earth and thatch.

Throughout the journey, Ren Yaohua had been very docile, like a bedraggled and pitiful red-eyed rabbit. When the masked man carried her, she didn’t struggle at all and occasionally sniffled. Where was any trace of her previous fierceness in kicking and biting? If the maid Xiangqin had been there, she would surely have thought her young mistress had been scared silly or possessed by Ren Yaoying.

The masked man placed Ren Yaohua on the only earthen bed in the room. Ren Yaohua tentatively called out: “Lei… Master Lei?”

After settling Ren Yaohua, the masked man glanced at her: “Mm.” He raised his hand and pulled off the face cloth, revealing a handsome face with distinct features – it was indeed Lei Ting, the head of the Lei family.

Ren Yaohua was completely relaxed. Just as she was about to say something, Lei Ting stood up and walked toward the door.

Ren Yaohua instinctively grabbed his sleeve.

Lei Ting paused and turned to look at her.

Ren Yaohua’s face reddened as she let go of his hand.

Knowing that Ren Yaohua had truly been frightened today, Lei Ting softened his voice: “The medicine box is in the carriage outside. I’ll go get it to bandage your wound.”

Ren Yaohua nodded and said, embarrassedly: “Thank you… Thank you.”

Lei Ting turned and went out. Only then did Ren Yaohua notice that there was a large bloodstain on Lei Ting’s right rear arm. She finally remembered that Lei Ting seemed to have been hit by an arrow and injured earlier, and the reason he got injured was because she had bitten him, preventing him from dodging the arrow that followed…

Now that she was safe, Ren Yaohua’s mind gradually cleared, and she recalled the entire situation from before.

Remembering how she had kicked, punched, clawed, and bitten Lei Ting, not knowing how many wounds she had inflicted on him, Ren Yaohua felt waves of guilt and self-reproach. She knew exactly how hard she had struck.